Dark Paradise Read Free Page B

Nice knives.”
    She inclined her head. “Thanks.”
    “How’d you get them?”
    She saw no reason to lie. “A guy traded them to me for a shrube. He needed one more to make his ten.”
    “Glen Turtle,” Mach said.
    “He’s in paradise now,” Cin said, amazed they hadn’t tried to kill her but were instead carrying on a conversation. “Well, I’ll be on my way. Nice meeting you gentlemen.”
    Elder eyed her bag. “I’m surprised Turtle held on to those shrube. You’re headed to the trading post?”
    “Yup.”
    “We’ll tag along.”
    She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want the company. Thanks just the same.”
    “Listen, honey,” Elder said, “you’ll be lucky to reach the post alive with that bounty, knives or not. We’re going to trade as well. No reason we shouldn’t travel together. Obviously you don’t belong to a group.”
    “There’s a reason for that,” she replied, a slow anger beginning to cover the cautious fear. “I don’t like groups. I don’t like company, period. So you and your colossal friend will do me the immense favor of fucking off.”
    Elder laughed. “No, Cin Trinity. We don’t do favors. We’ll stick with you.”
    Damn them. They thought to catch her off guard, steal her bag and knives, and leave her raped and battered body alongside an overgrown path somewhere between the caves and the trading post. But there was nothing she could do about it. Not yet, anyway.
    “Suit yourselves, then. But fair warning. You get too close and I’ll release my knives. I swear it.”
    Elder held up his hands, palms forward, his eyes wide and innocent. “We believe you, sweetheart.”
    Mach merely glowered.
    None of them moved. She rolled her eyes, sighing. “Look, I’m not giving you my back. If you insist on going with me, then we’ll walk side by side.”
    “Fair enough,” Elder agreed.
    First chance she got, she’d lose the bastards. Good thing she’d eaten a poe, otherwise they’d get her in her sleep. But they’d be the ones sleeping tonight, and that’s when she’d slip away.
    They began their journey from the hill side by side, and by the time they’d reached the bottom, Cin had managed to widen the distance between them. Not by much, though. They edged ever closer, eyes straight ahead, pretending to ignore her.
    “Tell your story.”
    She started at the suddenness of Mach’s gruff voice and tightened her grip on her restless knives. She would have to holster them soon, or they’d rip themselves loose from her hands and dive for the first warm body they saw.
    She shrugged. “I got none.”
    “Everybody has a story, sweetheart,” Elder said, his voice softer but no less commanding.
    She glanced at the two of them, their strong legs carrying them with long but casual strides that were checked, she could tell, in order to keep with her slower pace. Even as she watched them, they ended up somehow one on each side of her, and she wasn’t fooled for a single moment by their attempts to pretend they didn’t even notice.
    “My story isn’t interesting,” she said and had to force her jaw to relax. Bastards.
    “How long have you been here?”
    Again she glanced at Elder. She couldn’t tell yet who the leader of the two was but assumed Mach filled that position. Not only because of his hugeness, but because when she’d watched them making love, Mach was commanding the hell out of Elder. “Almost two years.”
    “Two years without a group or even a companion? How have you survived?” Then Elder’s gaze lit on her knives. “The knives can only do so much.”
    Mach just seemed to listen, to watch. He didn’t talk much. And that was the kind of company she preferred. She glared at Elder as one of her hands seized up in a painful spasm. “Why don’t you stop talking?”
    “Put the fucking knives away before they get free and cut your throat. We’re not going to hurt you.” Elder seemed to have lost his patience.
    Mach snorted, his contempt obvious. “She